Thiruvananthapuram: The newly set up National Disaster Management Authority has decided to set up a disaster response force comprising eight battalions
drawn from Central paramilitary organisations. The National Disaster Response Force will be given specialised training in dealing with disasters
within the shortest possible time.

The Calamity Relief Fund and the National Calamity Contingency Fund will be merged and a National Disaster Relief Fund will be established, according to
Shashidar Reddy and N Vinod Chandra Menon, members of the National Disaster Management Authority.

Mr. Shashidar Reddy, an MLA of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and son of the former Chief Minister Chenna Reddy, said the series of natural calamities
that India had experienced, be it floods, earthquakes, cyclones or tsunami, had brought in new concepts of disaster management. The earlier approach was
rescue and relief-centric. But given the magnitude of the disasters and their recurrence, the Centre has changed the orientation to a holistic
approach covering the entire cycle of disaster management, encompassing prevention, preparedness, mitigation, response, rescue, relief
reconstruction and recovery.

The new approach is based on the conviction that development cannot be sustainable unless disaster mitigation is built in the development process.

The objective is that hazards may be prevented from turning into disasters by taking appropriate mitigation and preparedness measures. "In other words,
we have to be prepared for the unexpected," Mr. Shashidar Reddy said. The new thinking began with the Bhuj earthquake and got more clarity with
the tsunami that hit the Indian coast towards the end of 2005. It was widely felt then that there was need for an institutional mechanism at the national
level, with a multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach. Consequently, the Centre enacted the Disaster Management Act,
2005.

The Act envisaged the setting up of a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, State Disaster
Management Authorities under the chairmanship of Chief Ministers and District Disaster Management Authorities under the chairmanship of District
Collectors with district panchayat presidents as co-chairmen.

The law also provides for the constitution of a National Disaster Response Force for emergency response and a National Institute of Disaster Management
for training and capacity building.

It contains provisions for the constitution of the Disaster Response Fund and Disaster Mitigation Fund at the national, State and district levels. An
important role has been assigned under the Act to local bodies including Panchayati Raj institutions and municipalities.

He said there were different approaches to disaster management and the authority was in the process of setting up the administrative mechanism,
including infrastructure such as early warning system, communication and dissemination of information, hazard mitigation and capacity building.
Prof. Vinod Chandra Menon, a United Nations disaster management expert, said the States had been advised to set up their own Specialist Response Teams.
Besides, 16 Regional Response Centres are being developed for storing a cache of essential search and rescue equipment to facilitate movement of
such equipment quickly to the sites of disasters from the nearest Regional Response Centre. The funds for the State will be with the State Disaster
Management Authority.

The Hindu

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